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OPINION: Cure may be worse than the disease

Thorold South solution provides a lesson for us all

At a time when things are tight and prices and taxes are high, there’s one way to save a few bucks that is so simple it’s astounding that we need officials to enforce it.

People; stop littering.

The costs of cleanup and enforcement are so hefty that it’s mind boggling the cure is for people to literally do nothing. Don’t throw your cigarette butts, coffee cups, fast food bags, cans, bottles - or any trash into the streets. Why people feel the need to deliberately litter is a mystery. If the population of small European countries acted like Canadians they would be up to their eyeballs in trash. We should be ashamed.

Keep it all in your car until you get home and put it in the trash. It’s a service we already pay for and is extremely effective. Even large items are picked up by garbage collectors at no charge if you simply notify them you need the service. Just fill out the easy online form.

If there were no littering we wouldn’t need signs, barricades, cleanup crews, or enforcement officials. The costs associated with all these things would be gone.

The photos above demonstrate the lengths to which responsible taxpayers have to go to try and dissuade the few buffoons who just don’t get any of this.

Fines for littering should be incredibly high because it is a deliberate act and absolutely needless.

As comedian Ron White said, “You can’t fix stupid.”

Maybe so, but you can fine the hell out of it.